Tomorrow, (November 6) marks the two year anniversary of the allogeneic transplant. Some patients call it their second birthday. I've never been able to think of it that way. It didn't feel like I was reborn, just given an extension on life. The two year mark is also the day I can begin the contact procedure to my donor.
The donor volunteered to harvest his own stem cells to donate. First, he took a drug that encouraged the stem cells to move into the bloodstream. Pain often accompanies the process. It's a deep pain as the stem cells are forced out of the bone marrow. The required number of cells needed is around ten million. The donor volunteered to lay in a hospital bed from one to three days, motionless with needles stuck into both arms. An aphaeresis machine circulated his blood out of one arm and into another while keeping and storing stem cells. He did this for a complete stranger, somewhere in the world who happens to share several similarities within our blood.
It's my mission to at least find out who he is. I'll send a request along with a letter of introduction tomorrow. Hopefully, my next blog entry will shed some light on his identity.
